Teachers in Rhode Island currently maintain their certification by showing evidence of continuous professional development. Creating a personal PD plan is a unit-wide assignment in the School of Education for all student teachers. The steps below are designed to guide you through this process so that we can complete it efficiently.
Reflect on your teaching so far. Choose one area that you know you need to strengthen. Use this area to list 1-3 needs that might serve as
What is the need?
How will improvement help your students?
How will improvement help your school?
RIBT Standard/Element Addressed?
1.
Time management
Students will be able to start and end tasks in an orderly way with an opening and closing. Allowing time for the closing of a lesson gives the teacher an opportunity to summerize the main objectives behind the lesson and make real world connections with students. This time also allows teachers to quickly assess students on the material. By informally assessing student knowlege, teachers can reflect on teaching practices.
Teachers will be better able to cover a set amount of material if they are skilled at time management.
Standard 7: Teachers work collaboratively with all school personnel, families and the broader community to create a professional learning community and environment that supports the improvement of
teaching, learning and student achievement.
2.
improve engagement strategies
Keeping students engaged in a lesson will increase their motivation and productivity.
When students are engaged throughout a lesson their scores and attandance may imporve. If they are able to stay on task throughout a lesson, their odds for completing the task-at-hand increases.
Standard 8: Teachers use effective communication as the vehicle through which students explore, conjecture, discuss, and investigate new
ideas.
3.
Differentiation
Modifying lessons to meet individual student needs will benefit all students.
Not every student learns the same.
Having a tailored lesson will allow students to utilize their strenths to demonstrate their true depth of comprehension.
If students are allowed to demonstrate their knowlege in different ways, overall scores will improve.
Standard 5: Teachers create instructional opportunities to encourage all students’ development of critical thinking, problem solving, performance
skills, and literacy across content areas. Standard 4: Teachers create instructional opportunities that reflect a respect for the diversity of learners and an understanding of how students
differ in their approaches to learning.
Formulate a professional development goal based the needs that you have identified. This goal should be:
measurable/observable
should lead to improvement of teaching, student achievement, and/or improvement of learning environment.
should describe new knowledge or skills that you will acquire and how that knowledge/skill will affect the school/district setting.
linked to applicable Rhode Island Beginning Teacher Standards and elements, e.g. RIBTS 2.4.
In the space below describe you goal and plan in two paragraphs.
In the first paragraph, describe a rationale your professional development goal. This rationale should describe the goal, the personal need that it will address, and how this goal benefits your students and your perspective school.
I. Professional Development Goal
Goal 1: I will improve instructional differentiation within my lessons.
Every student in my classroom is an individual. No two students are exactly the same in their interests, learning styles, and achievement level. Therefore, it is unfair to assume that every student has an equal opportunity to learn material when it is designed for a single learning style. Although challenging, I am making it a goal to modify my curriculum to incorporate multiple learning styles. By doing this I will also work to modify lessons for varying levels of achievement.
Differentiated instruction will provide students from all educational backgrounds to accomplish the same acquisition of knowledge. Differentiation also allows students to demonstrate their comprehension of material in such a way that is beneficial for them. Learners that are influenced more heavily by visual material may benefit from drawing pictures to demonstrate their knowledge.
This will also benefit schools through the production of higher test scores from students. If students have multiple outlets to learn and demonstrate their knowledge, score will improve.
Now that you have a PD goal, think about what type of learning opportunities you will participate in to address your needs. Use these links to investigate learning options:
Based on what you have found out, write a 1-2 paragraph narrative outlining at least two ways (PD categories) you will engage in engage in by the end of your first year of teaching. For each activity, explain how you think it will address the need that you have identified.
II. Professional Development Plan
To accomplish my goal to differentiate instruction I will attend a workshop to strengthen my weaknesses. At the workshop I will be sure to take diligent notes and research the multiple learning styles. I will reach out to demonstrators and inquire about different methods that would be helpful in differentiating instruction. After the workshop I with practice utilizing newly learned strategies when planning for future lessons.
College courses that address curriculum differentiation are also helpful to attend. I plan on researching courses that have a heavy curriculum in differentiation. I will also make an effort to build a strong relationship with professors that have a lot of information on the topic. This will allow me to obtain information from a professional and credible source to use in my own teaching practice.
Teachers in Rhode Island currently maintain their certification by showing evidence of continuous professional development. Creating a personal PD plan is a unit-wide assignment in the School of Education for all student teachers. The steps below are designed to guide you through this process so that we can complete it efficiently.
school personnel, families and the broader community
to create a professional learning community
and environment that supports the improvement of
teaching, learning and student achievement.
as the vehicle through which students explore,
conjecture, discuss, and investigate new
ideas.
Not every student learns the same.
Having a tailored lesson will allow students to utilize their strenths to demonstrate their true depth of comprehension.
to encourage all students’ development
of critical thinking, problem solving, performance
skills, and literacy across content areas.
Standard 4: Teachers create instructional opportunities
that reflect a respect for the diversity of
learners and an understanding of how students
differ in their approaches to learning.
Formulate a professional development goal based the needs that you have identified. This goal should be:
In the space below describe you goal and plan in two paragraphs.
In the first paragraph, describe a rationale your professional development goal. This rationale should describe the goal, the personal need that it will address, and how this goal benefits your students and your perspective school.
I. Professional Development Goal
Goal 1: I will improve instructional differentiation within my lessons.
Every student in my classroom is an individual. No two students are exactly the same in their interests, learning styles, and achievement level. Therefore, it is unfair to assume that every student has an equal opportunity to learn material when it is designed for a single learning style. Although challenging, I am making it a goal to modify my curriculum to incorporate multiple learning styles. By doing this I will also work to modify lessons for varying levels of achievement.
Differentiated instruction will provide students from all educational backgrounds to accomplish the same acquisition of knowledge. Differentiation also allows students to demonstrate their comprehension of material in such a way that is beneficial for them. Learners that are influenced more heavily by visual material may benefit from drawing pictures to demonstrate their knowledge.
This will also benefit schools through the production of higher test scores from students. If students have multiple outlets to learn and demonstrate their knowledge, score will improve.
Based on what you have found out, write a 1-2 paragraph narrative outlining at least two ways (PD categories) you will engage in engage in by the end of your first year of teaching. For each activity, explain how you think it will address the need that you have identified.
II. Professional Development Plan
To accomplish my goal to differentiate instruction I will attend a workshop to strengthen my weaknesses. At the workshop I will be sure to take diligent notes and research the multiple learning styles. I will reach out to demonstrators and inquire about different methods that would be helpful in differentiating instruction. After the workshop I with practice utilizing newly learned strategies when planning for future lessons.
College courses that address curriculum differentiation are also helpful to attend. I plan on researching courses that have a heavy curriculum in differentiation. I will also make an effort to build a strong relationship with professors that have a lot of information on the topic. This will allow me to obtain information from a professional and credible source to use in my own teaching practice.